A movable part which combines with a stationary part to form a bed includes: a contact sensor (50); wheels (44) rotatable in all directions; a body drive unit (31) which drives the wheels (44); an avoidance instruction unit (51) which generates an avoidance instruction according to a result of detection by a contact sensor (50); a rotation center setting unit (52) which sets a rotation center Q2 for the avoidance instruction; an avoidance instruction translation unit (54) which translates the avoidance instruction and the rotation center Q2 into a move instruction; and a position detection unit (34) which detects a positional relationship to a docking area (20), and the rotation center setting unit (52) sets the rotation center according to the positional relationship detected by the position detection unit (34).
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A bed comprising: a stationary part; and a movable part capable of being docked in a docking area which is a recess in the stationary part, wherein the movable part includes: a contact sensor which detects a contact force generated by contact with another object; an avoidance instruction unit configured to generate an avoidance instruction according to the contact force received from the contact sensor, the avoidance instruction being information regarding a rotation of the movable part; a position detection unit configured to detect a positional relationship of the movable part to the docking area; a rotation center setting unit configured to set, according to the positional relationship detected by the position detection unit, a rotation center for the avoidance instruction generated by the avoidance instruction unit; and a control unit configured to move the movable part around the rotation center set by the rotation center setting unit.
2. The bed according to claim 1 , wherein the position detection unit is configured to obtain a reference point distance Ls which is a distance to a reference point on the docking area, and the rotation center setting unit is configured to set the rotation center according to the reference point distance Ls.
3. The bed according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of contact sensors each of which is associated with a different rotation center.
4. A method of combining a movable part and a stationary part having a docking area which is a recess in the stationary part, by docking the movable part in the docking area to form a bed including the movable part, the stationary part, and the docking area, the method comprising: detecting a contact force generated by contact of the movable part with another object, using a contact sensor included in the movable part; generating an avoidance instruction according to the contact force received from the contact sensor, the avoidance instruction being information regarding a rotation of the movable part; detecting a positional relationship of the movable part to the docking area; setting, according to the detected positional relationship, a rotation center for the avoidance instruction; and performing an avoidance operation by moving around the set rotation center.
5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein a reference point distance Ls, which is a distance from the movable part to a reference point on the docking area, is obtained as the positional relationship.
6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the rotation center is set forward in a traveling direction of the movable part when the reference point distance Ls is equal to or longer than a distance F 1 , which indicates that the movable part is yet to enter the docking area.
7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the rotation center is set backward in a traveling direction of the movable part when the reference point distance Ls is shorter than a distance F 1 , which indicates that the movable part has entered the docking area.
8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the rotation center is set at an infinite distance forward or backward in a traveling direction of the movable part when the reference point distance Ls is shorter than an end distance F 2 , which indicates that the movable part is close to an end of the docking area.
9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the movable part is moved at a rotation velocity of ω a εR calculated using (Equation 4), which is ω a = L - 1 [ 1 M a θ s + D a θ L [ f a ] ] , ( Equation 4 ) where f a is the contact force detected by the contact sensor, M a θεR is an apparent weight property of the movable part, and D a θεR is an apparent viscosity property of the movable part.
10. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the bed includes a plurality of contact sensors, and the rotation center set for one of the contact sensors which detects contact and the rotation center set for another of the contact sensors which detects contact are different from each other.
11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein, when at least two of the contact sensors detect contact around a same time, a plurality of rotation velocities around the rotation centers set for the respective contact sensors are combined, and the movable part is moved at a rotation velocity resulting from the combining.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
September 7, 2010
March 25, 2014
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